In being named the new president of ESPN, Jimmy Pitaro will be asked to thread a very fine needle in trying to retain the network’s self-proclaimed title as the Worldwide Leader in Sports.

Pitaro will try to sustain ESPN’s place as a huge revenue driver for Disney in spite of the cable and sports industries’ incessant challenges from disruptive digital technologies.

Jimmy is the guy who does great deals and still manages to have everyone like him, a person who has negotiated with Pitaro in the past said in describing Pitaro’s style.

One thing that we’re not going to do is we’re not going to complain about the rules, Vrabel said on PFT Live Thursday. We’re just going to try to develop our players within those rules. If our players are in the building and I sit there and talk to them about their family, what their kids are doing or maybe what charities they’re involved with, those are things that are important to me right now.

Vrabel is adjusting to life as a head coach and said he’s learning that the responsibilities of the job leave him less time to watch tape with his assistants than he might like. He’ll have to adapt to that just like every other coach in the league, but the realities of his new job don’t seem to be causing him too much trouble overall.

The trade for Alec Ogletree was a strong start, but more help is needed here. The Giants are quite familiar with this 25-year old, playing against him the past four years in the NFC East. Not a star, but has lined up at all three linebacker spots in his 48 career starts, which makes him a fit in new defensive coordinator James Bettcher’s 3-4 scheme.

In 2015, Roseman was exiled from football operations in favor of then-coach Chip Kelly, and Roseman told PFT Live that at the time, he thought he was done having any significant role in Philadelphia.

As it turned out, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. Did I ever think I would be back in a significant position in Philadelphia? No. I don’t think that I did. But I was just determined that I was going to try to do the right thing every day, and get better and learn more, Roseman said.

Roseman practiced addition by subtraction in getting rid of many of Kelly’s favorite players, including Kiko Alonso, DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews, Jordan Matthews, Sam Bradford and Byron Maxwell, flipping many of them in trades that yielded draft picks and better players. All those moves turned the Eagles into the best team in the league, and made Roseman the best executive in the league, not long after Roseman thought he was finished as a personnel executive altogether.

America’s largest gay civil rights organization is criticizing the NFL over inappropriate questions to prospective players at the Scouting Combine.

The Human Rights Campaign released a statement about running back Derrius Guice being asked if he likes men at the Scouting Combine, calling on the league to take more serious actions to ensure such questions are not asked in the future.

The fact that Derrius Guice was asked by an NFL team and a prospective employer about his sexual orientation is absurd and inappropriate, the statement said. With similar incidents already reported, it’s clear that the NFL did not do enough to prevent it from happening again. Guice’s experience illustrates the risks faced by millions of LGBTQ people today in employment, athletics, housing and other areas of their lives.

The Seahawks received an offseason facelift after years of roster decay. One problem remains the same, though. The offensive line still isn’t any good, and the organization hasn’t made any moves of note to improve the trenches.

Isaiah Wynn’s potential addition would help solidify the left side of the Seattle front. With veterans Duane Brown at left tackle and Justin Britt at center, the Seahawks can slide Wynn in at left guard and then worry about the unit’s right side.

Robinson heads into that process after tearing his ACL during the 2017 season and that has certainly will have an impact compensation, location or otherwise on the contract he winds up signing this offseason. Robinson told Adam Schefter of ESPN that working his way back from that injury remains his main priority while he leaves as much hard work as possible on the contract front to his agent.

I just try to keep everything as simple for me as possible, Robinson said. Letting my agent handle most of the work. Me and him talk a lot, especially this time of year you have to be on the same page as him. I’m still doing my rehab stuff, getting better each and every day so that’s my main focus.

Robinson said he expects to be cleared for football work well before the start of training camp. Now he and his agent just need to figure out where he’ll be working this summer.Baker Mayfield sets up visits with Browns, Giants, Jets

The Alliance of American Football will kick off the following Sunday. On network television (CBS) as well as through a multitude of free digital platforms.

Yes, spring football. We know, from the USFL to the World League to the XFL, the idea has not worked. Here’s why the Alliance thinks it has a strong chance of succeeding: the folks involved.

The league will have eight teams cities and stadiums to be announced, though look for complementary sites, not NFL venues, and warmer climates given the February-late April schedule. Rosters will be culled from NFL cuts to the 53-man maximum after preseason, which Polian calls the core of our constituency; collegians who have gone undrafted, including underclassmen who have lost any remaining eligibility; players looking to return to the sport; and free agents from the CFL or elsewhere.

As a single entity, the Alliance will own all contracts and players will be dispersed in a variety of manners. If someone played in the NFL or in college for a Florida team or school, he’d likely wind up on a Florida-based franchise, for example. There also will be a mechanism after those allocations for a team interested in a certain player to get his rights. And then coaches of specific teams will have access to a group of players outside the allocations.

On March 12, Hall of Fame wide receiver and Beckham mentor Cris Carter said he was disgusted with the athlete’s behavior.

The story goes that boxing promoter Don King was being sued for broken promises when he was asked to comment on the allegations.

King erupted. Allegations? he shouted, I don’t even know the alligators!

If you or I were totally innocent of serious charges if we had nothing at all to do with it or hide and held a news conference to declare our total innocence, wouldn’t we be eager to take questions afterwards?

That’s why it seemed odd that University of Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller on Thursday, after reading a statement declaring his complete innocence in an alleged $100,000 payment to land a top recruit, then refused to take, let alone answer, any questions.

Also odd was that Miller spoke haltingly, remedially, as if reading from a lawyer-crafted statement he’d seen for the first or second time.

If it were up to safety Kenny Vaccaro, he’d remain with the team that drafted him in the first round in 2013.

The Saints have a say in the matter as well, however, and recent word from New Orleans has been that they are ready to move on without Vaccaro in their secondary. Vaccaro said Wednesday that he loves playing for the team, but appears to have accepted that the Saints are going in a different direction.

If they ask me to compete for the starting job I’m gonna compete my butt off. So, I think whatever the coach asks me to do that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.

Darnold said being a third-string quarterback as a redshirt freshman prepared him to deal with sitting and waiting if he were taken by the Giants and found himself behind Manning on the depth chart.

That helped me prepare and also being in L.A., being at USC has prepared me really well for the opportunity to go to a big stage like New York City, Darnold said. If an organization wants to draft me it’s their choice of what they do with me when I get there. I would just be happy and make the most of any opportunity.

I always just say, people ask me about that and I say I haven’t been confronted by a bunch of players that want to go in earlier, Winston said. That’s where we’re at. I think a lot of players are really comfortable going to their own spots they like to work out at. They have their guys, their trainers at their home base, whether it’s somewhere they went to college, whatever it might be and frankly what drives this.

As much as Gruden would love the chance to work with his players on the field, getting a chance to have football discussions with them is just as much a focal point of his argument.

You’re not allowed to do anything, he said earlier this month. You’re not allowed to coach your players. I’ve called several players, introduced myself. I think that’s legal. I’m not having contact with everybody. We’re not allowed to have any real contact. It’s pretty clear on what the rules are.

Deshaun Watson says one QB in the 2018 NFL Draft could ‘surprise’ a lot of people

If the past few weeks are any indication, there’s a good chance the NFL Draft is going to get crazy next month, and that’s because everyone wants a quarterback.

In the past 10 days alone, we’ve seen the Jets and Bills both make big trades to move up, so who knows how wild things might get on draft night.

If anyone knows how to surprise people, it’s Watson, who had an electric rookie year before going down with an ACL injury in November. As for the this year’s draft, although there are a lot of reasons to like Sam Darnold or Josh Allen or Josh Rosen or Baker Mayfield or Mason Rudolph, Watson likes what Jackson brings to the table.

I feel like he’s a smart individual, he’s a smart quarterback, Watson said. He has the intangibles to run the ball and throw the ball and make quick decisions. And of course, there’s going to be things that he’s going to have to learn and be patient with, I’m continuing to do that myself. Every quarterback, regardless of what system they’re coming from is going to have to learn at this level.

So when Luck does find himself back on the field, the process of not skipping steps, which will carry over to his recent work with a throwing expert out in California, will continue, Colts general manager Chris Ballard said Wednesday in appearance on 1070 The Fan’s The Grady & Big Joe Show.

We’ll ease him along,Ballard said. I mean, he’s in a great place right now, but we’ll ease him along.

After undergoing surgery in January 2017 and spending the entire offseason program, minicamp, training camp and the preseason in recovery and rehab mode, Luck and the Colts were hopeful that he could eventually return to the lineup at some point during the regular season.

But after practicing in a very limited fashion about one month into the season, Luck began to experience some discomfort in his surgically-repaired shoulder; his throwing program was eventually suspended for the rest of the year.

The most violent inmates in the city’s jails are being rewarded with video games for good behavior, Commissioner Cynthia Brann told a City Council hearing Thursday.

The video games, pizza parties, celebrity speakers, and other perks have been going on for several years in order to do everything possible to reward inmates for not assaulting correction officers and other inmates,he said.

With three vicious assaults on correction officers since the gang assault on [Correction Officer] Jean Souffrant last month, shouldn’t the DOC be focused on segregating violent offenders and taking away the privileges of repeat violent offenders?

Brann said the agency would like to nix privileges as a form of punishment �� like reducing inmates’ commissaries, restricting their access to a barber or cutting participation in enhanced recreation �� but they’re typically barred from doing so by the Board of Correction.

Strength has never been the issue with Flowers, the Giants’ starting left tackle for three years. His technique is sloppy, starting with poor hand placement and off-balance footwork. The Giants finally pulled the plug on Flowers as Eli Manning’s blind-side protector with their free-agent signing last week of Nate Solder, who manned left tackle for the Patriots the past seven years.

Pugh, the Giants’ 2013 first-round pick, is not part of the rebuild. The Giants showed no real interest as he hit the open market �� There wasn’t much conversations there with that, he said �� and he did nicely for himself, cashing in with the Cardinals on a five-year deal worth $45 million, with $20 million guaranteed.

Pugh arrived having played left tackle exclusively in college at Syracuse, and the Giants immediately made him a right tackle, starting 30 games his first two seasons, before eventually settling in at left guard. He knows what Flowers is in for.